Like Old Times
12/2/04

"What should we do about Flair and Batista?"

Shane sighed, put his pen on the table and started massaging his temples. Trying to get the World Wrestling Entertainment back in good shape after months of abuse was giving him a grade-a migraine. He and the others - Linda, Shawn, Paul, Bret and Stephanie - had been sitting in the same position for nearly six hours now.

"Ugh, I don't know." Shane finally grumbled.

Linda turned to look at her son. "You have to give an opinion."

"Do not."

"You're the new Chief Executive Officer, Shane. Take the position seriously."

"I am taking it seriously, mom. I just don't want to be the one who decides on what happens to them."

Linda sighed. "Fine. Anyone else have input?"

"I recommend suspension without pay." Paul stated.

"I second that."

"Bret? What do you think?"

"Indefinite suspension without pay. Wait thirty days and decide where you want to go from there."

"Oooooooooh," Shawn leaned over to request a high five from Bret, which he received. "I like that idea!"

"You would." Paul glared.

Shawn stuck his tongue out at Paul, then looked at Linda. "So?"

"We'll go with Bret's idea," Linda paused to write something down, then looked up again. "What about Tomko?"

"The Board decided to fire him," Shane replied, twirling his pen in his hand. "Remember?"

"Oh yeah... Sorry... So much to do," Linda paused again to shuffle through papers. "Okay... Now... About Joanie..."

"Yeah?"

"I'm afraid the Board doesn't want her back."

"I'm hiring her back." Shane stated.

"You can't do that!" Stephanie shouted.

"I can and I will. I promised her I'd hire her back and I'm going to do just that. If I can get Orton and Reso out of trouble with the Board, I can convince them to let me bring Joanie back."

"If you think that's best, Shane."

"I do."

"Then go for it," Linda paused, then picked up a stack of papers and shoved them closer to Bret. "For your contract, Mr. Hart. Please read everything carefully... Sign, initial and date where it asks you to."

"You got it." Bret leaned forward and took the papers, then snatched the pen out of Shane's hand and went to work.

"I was using that." Shane whined.

"Bullshit." Bret growled, stretching his arm so Shane couldn't reach the pen.

"Shane," The man in question jumped at Linda's tone. "Be serious!"

"Sorry."

"Now... What's D-X gonna do? I mean... We were only supposed to be around until Shawn got better and he's obviously okay now, so..."

"The Board is extremely upset with you for keeping that from us." Linda glared.

"We were so close, mom... They couldn't tell the truth... Besides, it was only a week..."

Linda turned to look at Shane. "You knew?"

"Yes."

"I oughta have your head for that, Shane!"

"Mom, if the Board knew Shawn got better, they would've dropped the investigation... You know that as well as I do."

Linda groaned. "Whose idea was it?"

"Mine." Shane stated.

"Fine, the Board won't know you were behind it."

After a few moments of awkward silence, Paul cleared his throat. "So, um... Yeah... D-X?"

"That's up to the two of you, Paul."

Paul looked over at Shawn. "What do you think, man?"

"I don't know..."

"Personally, I'd like to see you two assbutts stay as D-X for awhile." Bret commented.

Paul and Shawn looked at one another.

"Assbutts..?"

"Don't judge me."

"Not judging anyone, Bret... Just... Okay, nevermind... Yeah, I guess we'll stay on as D-X for awhile. Maybe we can get the tag titles?" Paul asked.

Linda gestured to Bret. "Ask your new commissioner."

"Ugh," Paul groaned and rolled his eyes. "Later."

"Is there anyone else on the Raw roster that should be reviewed?" Linda asked, looking around at everyone.

"Nobody else seemed hostile towards D-X... I mean... No one other than Tomko..."

"What about Jacobs?"

"Mom, he was just going by the script."

"But I didn't write that in." Stephanie stated, making everyone turn to look at her.

"What?" Shane asked, eyes wide.

"I didn't write that into the match. The steel stairs were never involved in my draft."

"That must mean Vince wrote it in on his own." Paul commented.

"Sherlock frickin' Holmes over here." Bret mumbled.

"I heard that!"

"What?"

"Gentlemen!" Linda shouted, once again gaining everyone's attention.

"Sorry." Paul stated.

"So... You never wrote that in... Lovely. This was all a plan from the beginning."

"I highly doubt Vince knew I was gonna get amnesia, Mrs. McMahon... He was probably just hoping I'd retire."

"That's exactly what worries me, Shawn... What matters now is that he's gone and anyone who was closely associated with him during the last several months of his control over the company has been removed or is under review... I think it's safe to say things are going to go along just fine."

"I agree. Nothing can get in the middle of us." Stephanie stated, smiling kindly at her mother.

"We still have other problems." Shane commented.

"Like?" Paul asked.

"I don't know. There's always problems."

"Way to be a Donny downer, Shane."

"Sorry. But I'm being honest. There's always someone who's up to something or someone who isn't happy. You get my drift. There has to be something we missed... This clean up was too easy."

"Too easy..? You got tossed through the windshield of your own rental car trying to fire 'too easy!'" Paul shouted.

"Tomko was definitely not 'too easy' to deal with!"

"Then what about this whole situation was 'too easy,' Shane? Tomko? Flair? Batista? Your dad?"

"This. The whole sitting down and mentioning people. Isn't there someone else we should be bringing to attention?"

"What do you mean by that?" Shawn asked.

Shane turned to look at his sister. "You have anything to add, Steph?"

"No. Why would I?"

Shane once again massaged his temples. "Because I hand delivered your draft of the Unforgiven script to dad. The tombstone onto the steel steps was in there."

Linda, Paul, Shawn and Bret all turned to look at Stephanie in shock.

"Is that true?" Linda asked.

Stephanie looked at everyone and lowered her eyes to the table. "Yes. Dad wanted someone to back him on the whole thing... I've been slipping things into the script... But I didn't know about Tomko, Batista and Flair attacking D-X. Honest! Would I really set up my own husband and his best friend like that?"

Linda stood up and leaned over the table towards Stephanie. "You did enough by scripting things. Get up and get out. We'll discuss this much later," Everyone watched as Stephanie huffed in annoyance and left. Linda sat back down and turned to look at Shane. "I don't want to know how you figured that out."

"I just think it's kind of funny dad didn't think to get anyone other than me to do his bidding on the business side of things... Then I thought Stephanie would've been his best choice since she has complete control of the creative department... And then I thought... It's funny how she wasn't around backstage a lot ever since things really hit the fan..."

"You're a genius." Bret stated.

"Ah, please. Don't flatter me."

"No, seriously. That was great thinking."

"I can't believe my wife was literally the elephant in the room." Paul stated, lowering his head to the table.

Shawn patted his back. "There, there... I'm sure she'll be forgiven soon enough."

"Speaking of which... We need to start deciding on what to do with the show... Matches and feuds... Shane, pick someone from the creative department to take control for the next few weeks. Take Paul and Shawn with you to discuss who should feud with who, who gets a push, who gets put on the back burner, etc. Get going!"

Shane grumbled. "It's gonna be a long fuckin' night."